This invention relates to a method and apparatus for product packaging. The invention is particularly but not exclusively applicable to packaging for products of the kind which are currently sold with a sleeve-type product identification band or wrapping member which serves to encircle or wrap around a product such as a food product, which may be contained in a dish-format container with (for example) a sealant film.
Sleeve-format product identification and labelling elements are widely accepted in the marketplace as indicative of good product quality. However, although such product identifying and labelling products can be preprinted with high quality technical and other data in any chosen printing format, so that the product itself is attractively displayed, there is a significant shortcoming in the existing systems for providing sleeve-type product labelling and identification, as follows. In short, such systems cannot accommodate the requirement for printing variable information on the packaging. In other words, although such product labelling sleeves can have the product itself attractively and colorfully displayed, they are not capable of being printed with the variable information which product packers need to apply. Examples of such variable information include the product weight and its price, which may vary, and often do, at least slightly, between every single item in a sequence of product units proceeding along a packaging line. Of course, some products do not require to be weighed and variably printed with such data on an in-line basis. Such is the case where the product is of uniform weight and cost, and this particular problem does not arise in such packaging lines.
However, a packaging firm will usually have a series of packaging lines running simultaneously and at least some of these will need the ability to print variable information such as product weight and price on an in-line basis, with the ability to vary the printing between every single item which is passing.
In order to meet this requirement in the case of sleeve-type product packages presently available, the only technically available mode for achieving the result is to print relatively small self adhesive labels which can be applied to the product sleeves, and thus carry the required information.
We have investigated the technical basis for the inability of presently available machinery to variably print sleeve-type product packaging while being able to print small self adhesive labels and the reason is as follows.
We have discovered that there is a technical relationship between firstly the ability of currently available packaging-handling machinery to provide an indexed relationship between items or units of a product moving lengthwise or longitudinally of a feed direction, and secondly the corresponding labelling elements to be applied to such product units on an item-by-item basis. While of course it goes without saying that relatively simple mechanical relationships such as product and labelling element indexing can be achieved by developing an appropriate mechanism, provided sufficient resources are directed at the problem, it nevertheless remains a stumbling block (the reason for which we have discovered) that currently available packaging machinery is subject to the above-identified limitation. And this limitation is due (we have realised) to the fact that such machinery feeds the packaging elements or units, such as the pre-printed oblong-format sheets of card or the like material towards the zone in which they are to be applied (by a machine) to the product units, in an endwise (rather than sidewise) attitude. In other words, the sheet material elements which go to make up the product-encircling sleeves are fed towards the product-application zone with their short (rather than long) ends going first, or leading. To put it another way, we have discovered that it is the attitude in which the product sleeves are fed (an endwise attitude) which leads to the difficulties in indexing them with respect to the units of product themselves, around which the sleeves are to be inserted (in a mechanical glueing and encirclement operation.
We have discovered that if the elements or units of packaging material (which are to be applied to the product in the format of a product encircling sleeve or band, or for example a label adhering to the product and serving to simulate such a band or sleeve) are fed towards the application zone in a laterally-aligned (or long-edge-first) attitude, then they can be properly indexed to the relevant product to which they relate, at the speeds at which machinery of this kind operates.
As a result it is possible to provide in a simple and direct manner, using existing machinery, an in-line printing/labelling facility in which item-by-item data relating to individual units of the product proceeding along the feed line towards the labelling zone are individually printed. The product is weighed (for example) and that weight, and perhaps the corresponding product price, are then allocated to a corresponding individual product labelling or packaging element. This is proceeding independently along its own feed line or web in the direction of the product labelling zone, and the data is printed on that specific product labelling or packaging element, and same is reliably applied to the relevant product unit which at the time of printing of this variable information is completely separate from its labelling or packaging element. The option of overcoming the indexing or relationship-establishing problem as between the labelling or packaging elements and the product units or elements cannot be overcome by the simple expedient of variably printing the relevant data directly on the product after it has been labelled, because in most cases such printing is technically out of the question due to the difficulties inherent in printing on a surface when it has a variable or perhaps negligible degree of support below the printed surface.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and corresponding apparatus for product labelling and/or packaging offering improvements in relation to one or more of the shortcomings of the prior art as discussed herein, or improvements generally.
According to the present invention there is provided a method and corresponding apparatus for labelling and/or packaging products, as defined in the accompanying claims.
In embodiments of the invention we provide a method and apparatus in which product labelling elements or units, which are adapted to simulate product labelling sleeves, are provided. These labelling elements carry the usual preprinted information and product identification on their outer surface. Their lower surface carries adhesive for application to the product, though it may not always be necessary for the entire lower surface to be coated with adhesive, depending upon particular product requirements.
These product labelling elements are used in the principal application of the product in the manner of a product sleeve-simulating label which is applied to, for example, three surfaces of the product namely the upper surface and the two side surfaces. There will usually be no need and it will usually not be convenient to cause the label to adhere to the lower surface of the product since this will not affect the effectiveness of the simulation of the product sleeve (with its attendant customer quality implications), but such may of course be adopted if so desired.
In an alternative and presently less preferred alternative embodiment of the invention the product labelling or packaging elements could be used in the format of product-encircling sleeves or bands which could be caused to encircle the product by a simple wrap-around technique with the application of adhesive to the overlapped ends. Such differs not particularly significantly from a product label secured directly to the product by adhesive, and the factors relating to variable printing and indexing of the product as described above and below are not affected by such a change.
In the embodiments also, the product units themselves are fed on a sequential basis and item-by-item lengthwise of a feed line, for example on a conveyor belt, towards the labelling/packaging/product identification zone. The product elements may be trays of pre-prepared food, but other products may well be packaged and/or labelled with advantage in accordance with the teaching of the present invention.
In accordance with one important feature of the present invention the mode of feeding of the product labelling and/or packaging elements towards the labelling or packaging zone is such that the general disposition of the labelling or packaging elements is that they extend laterally with respect to their feed direction. In other words, the longer dimension of the labelling or packaging elements extends laterally with respect to that direction rather than longitudinally. In this way the labelling or packaging elements are capable of being disposed on their feed web, or as part of a feed web which is proceeding generally in the same direction as the web or conveyor carrying the product elements. And, although these two webs or conveyors are not necessarily lying strictly alongside each other an at least approximate dimension-for-dimension relationship, or item-for-item relationship between each labelling or packaging element and its corresponding product item or unit can be established. In the most straightforward example this reduces to the following. The label to be applied to the tray or container of food, to simulate a sleeve for that container, is of a width such as to cover only a portion of the dimension (usually the length dimension) of the food tray to which it is to be applied, whereas the length of that label may be significantly greater than the length of that tray since the tray itself may be generally square in format or only slightly longer than it is wide, whereby the added length needed by the label for accommodating the depth of the tray adds significantly to its length.
In the case where the product, for example a food tray, is relatively long and thin in format, then it might be possible to achieve a properly-indexed relationship between the corresponding product label or packaging and individual product items (on the basis of existing packaging machinery) with the label attitude the reverse of that adopted in the present invention, but such an exceptional case is not of particular commercial significance for the purposes of the present invention, and accordingly the principal and central aspects of the present invention are not directed to this specific application, but such is hereby identified as part of the invention.
It is to be understood that in the embodiments of the present invention the feeding of the product labelling or packaging elements in the feed direction will typically be with the individual elements of labelling or packaging disposed in a spaced-apart relationship on (for example) a sheet or web of release material serving to provide a defined spaced relationship between the individual elements in accordance with the requirements of the labelling/packaging and printing machinery which they are processed and handled by. It is of course perfectly feasible that the labels or packages may be in a continuous web without the need for a backing web or the like, or in any other convenient relationship, provided the disposition of the packaging elements is in accordance with the principles of the present invention in order to achieve the required indexed relationship with the product items or units.
In accordance with a further important feature of the present invention there is provided in the embodiments of the invention an indexed relationship between the product units themselves and the units or items of labelling or packaging material. The indexed relationship amounts of course to an invisible link between items of product and items of labelling/packaging. More specifically, in a typical example a particular product item will be weighed as the product items pass in sequence over a weighing location in the feed line, and the weight (and therefore the calculated product price) of that specific product item is then available to be printed by the printing machinery on the corresponding labelling/packaging unit having an indexed relationship therewith. This relationship is of course maintained until the two indexed items are united in the labelling/packaging step itself.
In the embodiments of the invention the printing of the relevant variable information, such as the sell-by date and/or weight and/or price etc can be carried out at any convenient stage after the indexed relationship between a given item of product and a given item of its labelling or packaging has been established and many types of known printing apparatus can perfectly well carry out this (in itself) conventional printing step. However, it needs to be understood that there is nothing conventional or known about the feature of the embodiments of the invention whereby this printing of variable information (which may vary for every single one of a stream of products passing at high speed down a packing line) is provided directly on an in-line basis on the main packaging and product-identifying material such as a product-enveloping label or sleeve, as opposed to being printed on a relatively tiny adhesive label which is applied to the product in an individual and additional step needed for that purpose, with attendant cost implications and product perceived quality (loss) implications.
The embodiments of the present invention provide the packing line user with the significant step forward that there is no longer any need for differences of packing or labelling materials between packing lines which pack products of constant weight or lines packing products or varying weight, or other product variations. The embodiments of the present invention can accommodate all such variations (or lack of them) while providing a simple product identification and product data-printing process of wide application in the food and related industries.
It is to be understood that the indexing advantage provided by the wide-edge-leading feature of the embodiments of the invention is due in no small measure to the relatively high speeds at which packing lines operate. These speeds lead to significant problems in terms of product and labelling and packaging convergence and congestion, and well-defined relationships (as in the still-relevant reported Molins case) and the significance of the technical features concerning wide-edge-leading in the embodiments of the present invention are to be interpreted accordingly.